


Blood in Your Mouth

by Somnum



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Dream Bubble, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-01
Updated: 2012-01-01
Packaged: 2017-11-22 17:16:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/612270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Somnum/pseuds/Somnum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was nothing but a little play at blackrom you tell her and she tells you. Terezi is off-balance, off-kilter and you don't care because the whole world as you knew it flew off-balance with your death.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blood in Your Mouth

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AlbinoWalrus64](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlbinoWalrus64/gifts).



> I hope it lives up to your prompt!

==> Vriska: Wake up.

The last thing you remember is nothing. Trees cover the sky above you, blocking out all but strips of wan light. Your arm hurts and you know that you are dead. It’s not a shock. You’ve been dead for quite a while now really, and you must say, it has its perks. Most everyone you know is dead anyways, and you try to tell yourself that the ones that aren’t dead are the ones that don’t really matter to you. Ironic that they are the only ones who matter to you. All of your dead friends, and you use the term friend very loosely, died in ways that could at least be seen as vaguely brave. You? You were stabbed in the back by a blind girl. What a way to go. 

Sitting up, you look around and roll your eyes. A scalemate hangs from a tree nearby, blank button eyes glaring. They pollute the forest, dangling from intricately knotted ropes. You know exactly where you are and you couldn’t be more pissed off. After everything you fucking did for her, she managed to get herself killed. It’s not up for debate if she thinks you did jack shit to help her. The point is, in your opinion you did, and now she has the selfish gall to somehow get herself offed. And you couldn’t even be the one to do it. Perhaps you shouldn’t assume that she’s even here or that she’s even dead, but what’s the fun of being dead if you can’t jump to a conclusion once and a while anyways? 

Pushing yourself to your feet, you scan the forest. The last time you’d been here, well, it wasn’t something you wanted to think about. Not right now. Probably not ever. The map of the place was faded in your mind; all wrinkled edges and scratched out areas. With a shrug, you pick a direction and start to walk.

==> Vriska: Get lost. 

Why the hell would you do that?

==> Vriska: Spot a tree house.

Of course. You remember her ugly as sin hive as well as you remember everything else in this dream bubble. Ducking under a scalemate, you lay a hand on a roughhewn wooden step attached to the massive tree supporting her hive. Gritting your teeth and hating yourself internally, you climb up. The first step into her hive makes your head spin. There are drops of teal blood by the door, drops of blue blood on top. You curse yourself, curse this dumb fuck dream bubble, curse everything for making you think you were ready for this. It’s not that you don’t think you can deal with her. You know you could deal with her any day when you were both alive, match her barb for barb, kiss for kiss. But you’re dead and she’s who the hell knows. Your dried blood is on her floor and there’s none more in your heart.

Your footsteps are almost silent, all the skills you learned from FLARPing kicking into high gear. Her hive looks exactly like you remember it, gaudy décor and all. It’s as if you never played SGRUB. Sometimes you wish you never had. But that was a private dream, only thought of when you were trapped in a dream bubble alone, never anything you would even think with someone else around. Shaking your head, you take careful steps, stopping every once and a while to prod at stuff that is certainly none of your business. 

“Look who finally decided to show up.” You whip around; eyes widening at the fact that Pyrope has managed to get the jump on you yet again. Her arms are crossed, eyes whited out like yours. Something about her is off but you chalk it up to the fact that she’s dead. 

“Look who finally died. About time. Just isn’t fair for goody-goody justice freaks to be able to kick it with the living when I’m not allowed.” A sneer paints itself over your face, easy as breathing. You turn back around, deliberately ignoring her, and pick up a random journal. Flipping to a page about half way through, you fake a scandalized gasp. There’s nothing on the page, just a doodle in the corner. She falls for the bait regardless, snatching it out of your hands. “Keeping secrets Terezi?”

She flushes a light teal, teeth barred in a feral grin. “I have nothing to hide, Vriska. After all, I’m not the one who doesn’t even like herself.”

“Think you’ve got me confused with someone else. There’s no one I love more than myself and you know it. Poor girl, you thought you’d change that. Sorry, but that was just another fumble in the dark by you. But then again, aren’t all your attempts to do anything?” The pattern feels familiar. It’s so mindless, such an instinct now. Terezi strides closer, looking at your left ear. You think she means to look you in the eye. The mistake softens her.

“You always were full of yourself. Sad really, how deluded you still are.”

“At least I can still see.” It’s a low blow, and not one of your finer insults. You recall flinging it at her in your first serious fight, how her eyes lit up, how she drawled out that she was so, so proud of your observation skills. Together you creep closer to each other. Maybe up close you can find new chinks in her armor. “So how’d you finally croak?”

Regret flashes across her face, twisting it in a way that actually makes you regret that you asked. “Noir.” 

“That’s impossible.” Confusion hits you hard and fast. Terezi couldn’t have been killed by Noir. You have your sources in the dream bubbles and you know he didn’t kill her. So why the hell is she here, lying to your fucking face? 

“Sweet of you to think so much of me.”

“Hell no. I just thought that after stabbing me you’d have the dignity to not die at Noir’s hand. Disappointing me like always.” 

She pulls back. The sudden distance between you and her feels like a trench. “Stabbing you?”

You roll your eyes. “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten already, Terezi. And here I was, thinking it was the pinnacle of your boring life.” She appears genuinely confused, and it hits you. “You’re from an alternate timeline.” 

She cocks an eyebrow, sly grin on her face. “So what I’m getting here is that I did what I should’ve done in my timeline and stabbed you. Damn, and you always pretended like you were so much better! When in reality, you were probably a joke to kill. Easier to catch than a scalemate.” She’s slunk closer to you before you can draw a breath, arm brushing against yours. 

You turn and she follows you, a dizzy spin that leaves the room spinning. “Now that we’ve got that sorted, why don’t you just fuck off and I’ll try and make my way out of this shitty dream bubble. Sounds like a winning plan to me.” 

“Leaving me already?” Terezi’s voice is lowered, sharpened to a sarcastic edge. Even this alternate timeline Terezi knows exactly what buttons to push. You wonder what you were like in this alternate timeline. You wonder what you were to her. But you wonder what you even were to her in your own timeline. 

A finger trails across your cheek, nail scraping up blood in its trail. She leans in, her breath hot on your ear. “What’s bothering you Vriska? I’m not what you expected. You thought you were going to waltz in here and have your way with Terezi from your timeline. Well, I’ve got news for you spider bitch, because that isn’t ever going to happen. She’s happy. She’s happy with Karkat and the human boy and she doesn’t need you. She’s replaced you.”

You throw a quick punch to her gut, legs feeling weak. This poseur doesn’t know shit. There’s no way she’d even have a vague notion of what was going on in your timline. But something about the satisfied smirk on her lips rings true. “And you think I need her? Please. She was nothing but an easy distraction. Nothing but a little play at blackrom.” Taking your face in her hands, Terezi drags her nails up and down your jaw.

She’s wrapped around you, hands moving to make way for her tongue. You grit your teeth, tasting your own blood on your bitten cheek. Taking a handful of her hair, you yank her back, eyes narrowing at the blue blood smeared around her mouth. 

“Don’t touch me.” The words come out a narrow hiss. She smiles sardonically at you, mouth full of pointed teeth. “I’m not fucking around here Terezi.”

“She’s in a kismesis with Gamzee you know. You weren’t anything to her. Nothing permanent anyways. What were you saying? Nothing but a little play at blackrom. As soon you died, she forgot about you. Sad isn’t it? Even after all those years together, you still need her. I can tell, you wanted me to be her so badly. Maybe you can get it right in the afterlife, am I right? Here’s the news. She doesn’t need you.”

You want to snap back. It would be so easy, so perfectly easy to fall into something with this Terezi. You hate her for not being the real Terezi and you hate yourself for wanting to the real Terezi and you hate that she knows that. You can see yourself giving up, staying in this hideous hive until you can’t breathe from the colors. You can see yourself fighting here forever with her, lying on the floor covered in blue and teal and never getting up. 

But you can’t. 

You’re not an idiot and you, Vriska Serket, don’t give anyone pity, least of all yourself. So what if Terezi is doing something with that idiot clown. You don’t give a fuck. You’re dead and she’s not. And it’s not cheating if it happens in a dream bubble, right? You’re sure you can persuade Terezi of that fact if you ever run into the real her. She meant nothing to you and you meant nothing to her and that’s the way it was and it looks like that’s the way it will always be. 

“Catch you round, dead girl.” Tossing a final sneer Terezi’s way, you leave the hive. She says something behind you but you have the taste of her blood lingering in your mouth. Her blood is in your mouth and she’s under you and her eyes are open and she’s lying next to Gamzee. You don’t care you don’t care you don’t care. The forest is just as empty as it was on the way in and you don’t know how to get out of this damn dream bubble. Flopping next to a tree, you feel the scratches on your jaw and hate yourself.

Because you care you care you care.


End file.
